


Winter of her Discontent

by greerwatson



Series: ITOWverse: Swim Challenge [3]
Category: RENAULT Mary - Works
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-31
Updated: 2010-08-31
Packaged: 2018-05-19 20:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5980666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/pseuds/greerwatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suffering a chilly Athens winter, it occurs to Arete that the ITOWverse might be enjoying a different season.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter of her Discontent

**Author's Note:**

> This series was written for the 2010 Summer Challenge on the [maryrenaultfics](http://maryrenaultfics.livejournal.com/) LiveJournal community, to the prompt “swim”.

The winter drafts through the house could not be banished by a brazier or two.  Arete’s fingers cramped as she worked; and she longed for the baking heat of summer—as, in summer, she would long for the cool breezes of spring.  Charis said she wanted to go back to bed, where it was warm.  Arete wrapped her in a shawl; but inevitably it tangled the child’s arms as she reached for her doll.  Looking for her an hour later, Arete found the shawl on the stones and Charis’s lips turning blue.

She broached the matter with Alexias when he came in; but he saw no solution.  Winter was winter; and she should keep Charis with her indoors, and perhaps light another brazier.  The cost of fuel was not mentioned; but it was never far from her mind.  A little sharply, she suggested to her stepson that perhaps, in that strange world they had visited at midwinter, the house would still be warm, dry, and free of drafts.  Or summertime might be visited there, instead.

The notion that the clubhouse might be free to the characters out of season, as it were, shook Alexias:  he had assumed that time ran there as it did for them, winter matching winter, spring to spring.  He had reservations about cheating the seasons.  “We have our place in The Book,” he argued, with the logic learned in the _γυμνασιον_ , even though he knew arguing logically with a woman was pointless, “and that place has a time, which now is winter.  If we jump to summer, are we gaining the months—or perhaps losing them?”

“Judging by their ‘Christmas’,” Arete pointed out sharply, “we do neither, since we return at the time we left.  But rather warmer than we are right now.”

“Nevertheless,” argued Alexias, “ is it ethically justifiable to desert one’s fellow Athenians, who suffer as much as we, while one flees to warmth?

Arete thought this nonsense.  They were all in the same Book, after all; and any character could equally journey to summer if it occurred to them to do so.  She informed her stepson that, unless he, as _quondam_ head of the household forbade it, she would take her daughter for a visit the following day.  Alexias simply said that the raising of a daughter was, of course, the responsibility of the women’s side of the house—but, as for himself, he had plans to visit Lysis the following afternoon.

When he returned in the evening, Arete was home and Charis in bed.  He didn’t bother to inquire about their day.

More than a decade later, though, in another chill damp winter, he remembered her suggestion.

**Author's Note:**

> The mysterious pond in this series is the summer development of the area of frozen ice that appeared in the Christmas ITOWverse series.


End file.
